Here's wishing everyone the highest of blessings this Sabbath...
Friday, April 26, 2024
Founders Quotes, 23-24 April 2024
Two quotes on character and citizenship...
(1) In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character.... - Noah Webster, Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education, 1789
(2) Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. - George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
On the first quote, Noah Webster could very easily have been channeling Martin Luther King's "content of character" speech from 1963 for in the end, one's character is everything in this world. And Washington's words on citizenship still ring true today, regardless of what certain elements on the Left and the Right may think..
There's No Shame in a Trade, Folks...
NEW HOPE FOR NON-SELECTIVE COLLEGES: VOCATIONAL TRAINING. They might be woke too, but it won’t be 80 grand a year, and maybe you will learn a useful skill. Beats being on the receiving end of a quarter-million dollar mostly peaceful eye-stabbing.
Just as land-grant colleges in 1862 began changing the college environment and community/junior colleges did the same starting in the 1950's-1960's, a shift by rising high school graduates to vocational schools instead of four-year colleges/universities may be the biggest cultural shift in higher education, one away from the humanities towards work-based education.
Why? Because, in most cases, a course of study in a trade (certificate programs) and/or a degree (associate/bachelor) in either a trade or in nursing, for instance, has a far-better and far-reaching bang for the buck in society...per the James G. Martin Center, That’s where vocational colleges have a distinct leg up. By providing their students, at an affordable price, with the immediate skills and knowledge necessary for a well-paying job, they can attract applicants who are reluctant to take on heavy debt. The nation desperately needs them. Although it’s impossible to predict exactly which skills will be in demand down the road, it’s safe to say that those who demonstrate discipline will be highly desirable employees. It’s why those in the military continue to be in demand after they take early retirement even when they don’t necessarily possess a bachelor’s degree. Employers like their work ethic, which recent college graduates too often sorely lack.
In the years I worked in the grocery business, the best employees around me were either those who'd served in the military or had gone the trades route before going into the grocery business; they (a) had the skills needed to immediately slot back into civilian life, (b) didn't want to or need to attend a four-year college, and/or (c) didn't want the crushing debt that now comes with a four-year degree.
The good thing here is that the colleges nimble enough to survive will be better off....the ones who don't? Well, they can always learn to code.
America's Most Indicted
I honestly don't know how deep this corrupt rabbit hole goes but given how corrupt Joe Biden has been at times, it makes you almost wish God would send that Sweet Meteor of Death down onto D.C. as a big fat middle finger to the Beltway...
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Founders Quotes, 21-22 April 2023
Two quotes on budgets and bureaucracy (which often intertwine in D.C.)...
(1) As on the one hand, the necessity for borrowing in particular emergencies cannot be doubted, so on the other, it is equally evident that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the credit of a nation should be well established. - Alexander Hamilton, Report on Public Credit, 1790
(2) If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper, 1802
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
America and the Tytler Cycle
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage. (Alexander Fraser Tytler)
One of the basest problems in any democracy (including America, which is technically not a democracy but a republic or "representative democracy") is that, unless you have a moral and civil society, said democracy will inevitably end up devolving into either an autocratic society or a monarchy.
Tytler, a/k/a Lord Woodhouselee, was by most accounts a Scottish monarchist but his words apply here because once you strip the veneer of civilization away from humanity, you will end up at some point with strongman dictatorial rule.
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. (1 Samuel 8:7, BSB)
When we as a society begin to reject God and His firmaments, this cycle is all-but-inevitable.
Mental Self-Care Day
Don't worry, I took a mental day Sunday and spent most of Monday working around the house.
You gotta' do this every so often, otherwise you go nuts over time.
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